Things Change
by jeddarose
Summary: Start of AU. Contains 2 OC as well as the normal Torchwood crew. Crystal Rodgers's bodyguarding job goes wrong when an alien shows up with Torchwood close behind. When the alien gets loose in the HUB things get worse.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Not mine, don't sue. This Torwood fanfic goes AU at some point in the middle of Season 1, I'm not quite sure when at this stage but definitely after Cyberwoman so spoilers to at least that point.

Things Change

Crys Rodgers was decidedly bored, Mr Mark Hallem had hired her to protect him but so far the only danger she had observed was the bottle of cheap whiskey he had knocked back a third of in the past hour. It wasn't that he couldn't afford decent whisky; her services did not come cheap after all, Mr Hallem clearly had money to throw around. Where and how he had obtained that money was not Crys's business and she didn't want to know anyway. He claimed to like the cheap stuff; the smell of it simply made her gag. Anyway, this wasn't her favourite place, the race track on the outskirts of Cardiff. Well, it was a racetrack now, until a couple of weeks ago it had been a run-down series of warehouses. It hadn't changed a great deal since then, but apparently it was the perfect place to hold the 'Deathwish' motorbike race. In Crys's opinion it was far too dark, excessive shadows held danger.

"Hi Crys," Hammy called, she glanced round; just long enough to wave and then returned to her contemplation. He was really called Mohammed (no surname) and he was Mr. Hallem's engineer and mechanical fixer. He was also the only one who treated her like a person rather than a piece of furniture. Not that she was sure that this was a compliment as he also conducted detailed, if one-sided, conversations with the engines he worked on.

Mr. Hallem got up from his chair and walked towards the door. He was a large man, powerful in his younger days but now running to fat. He had also started dyeing his, sadly thinning, hair and bleaching his teeth. The overall effect was a little comic but he still gave off an aura of power. For the money he was paying her Crys could quite easily restrain her tendency to grin at his appearance. She sprang to his side as he walked towards the door, she ran an automatic check of the weapons attached to her person; this was what she got her money for after all. They walked to the main race area. Hammy trailed along behind them. This wasn't the sort of race that had pit-stops after all. There was a lot of dust in the air and the roaring of engines as people ran their test laps. Crys kept looking round as she followed a step to the left and a little behind her boss. She wanted to be in front but he wouldn't have that.

They walked towards their places at the side of the track as the race was soon to start. Mr Hallen spared a few words for his rider. Then all the non riders cleared off the track. The sound of revving grew louder as the riders lined up.

There was a pistol crack and they were off. Crys had to restraint her usual reaction to gunfire, now was neither the time nor the place. She wasn't watching the racers, she was watching everything else. Then another gunshot rang out followed by a crash and the screaming of torn metal. Crys focussed back on the track. Two of the riders and their bikes were down. There was no sign of where the shot had come from, but there were signs of panic all around the track.

Crys's mind switched to fight mode as she continued to look around and try to determine where the shot had come from. Her answer came in the form of a dark haired man who ran from the shadows and vaulted over the railing coat swirling behind him and gun in hand. She drew her gun with her right hand; she touched the hilt of the knife strapped to her forearm as she did so, it was her emergency weapon and touching to reassure herself of it's presence before a fight was a ritual she had gotten in to. She made no other move though.

Crys watched as the man walked to the centre of the track, his gun cracked again and again as he pumped a couple of shots into one of the fallen riders. Crys couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. To her horror the fallen rider got to his feet and started grappling with the man with the gun.

Part of Crys's mind was yelling at her that this wasn't possible. That rider had taken at least two bullets to the head, people did not get up and start scrapping after that. It wasn't right. The front of the rider's helmet had been pretty much destroyed under the impact of the two close range gun shots. The face underneath did not seem to be damaged. He looked unhealthily pale, but the helmet seemed to have protected him from the bullet damage.

The dark haired man was casually tossed aside where he collided with the railing, slumped to the ground and lay still. The pale skinned rider stalked slowly across the track. Crys tore her eyes from the two figures in the dust and refocused on the figure approaching her. For some reason neither Hammy nor Mr Hallem had run for it, she never could figure out how untrained people were going to react in moments of stress. They both seemed frozen in place; she was just grateful that they weren't running around screaming. Crys positioned herself in front of Mr Hallem and waited. The eyes f the approaching rider gradually resolved; it had to be a trick of the light, people didn't have solid green eyes. They just didn't.

Crys levelled her gun at the figure as he approached, it was a warning now. She had shot people before but it wasn't something she wanted to do too regularly. The figure was still yards distant when something slammed into Crys and threw her to the side. Her shoulder burned and she felt as if she had stuck her fingers in a electric socket. Her muscles twitched and refused to obey her. She was force to watch is rising horror as the pale rider stalked towards Mr Hallem; there was a flash he crumpled. He must have been shot.

Crys gradually pulled herself to her feet. Her legs were trembling but she wasn't going to give up. It simply wasn't in her nature. Her gun was still in her hand and she fired. She saw holes appearing in the rider's chest and felt the kick of the pistol against her hand; but those were the only signs that the gun was working. It had no affect on the slowly advancing figure. Maybe, somehow someone had switched her ammo? Crys knew the chances of that were virtually nil; but she still thought it.

She dropped the gun, this was bad. She knew that but she wasn't going to quit. She was too far in to quit now; she had nowhere to quit to. This was what she did. It was all she knew.

Crys lashed out with her knife. It connected with the rider's throat. Her hand went numb but she held on to the weapon and yanked sideways. The numbness gradually spread up her arm as the blade cut. She started to shake and then the knife came free and she slumped forwards. The world went dark.


	2. Chapter 2

The first breath after you came back always hurt. It was like a kick in the chest. Jack Harkness breathed again. He scrambled to his feet and looked around wondering where the rest of his team were. They should have been right behind him. He scanned the darkness surrounding the track, most of the civilians had scattered; not that they would be any great loss to society. To his surprise the Kalarian hadn't fled. They didn't normally stick around very long. This one was currently attempting to blast a blonde woman into the ground; although, to be fair, she did have a knife in its neck.

Jack covered the ground separating him from the alien. The woman collapsed. There was a young man cowering in the shadows with his face in his hands and his head turned to the wall but the Kalarian was ignoring him. It turned on Jack once more. He could feel the electricity flicking through its body as it approached him. It was making the hair on his arms stand on end.

"HieYa," The shriek echoed round the enclosed space. The origin of the noise was Owen who half fell / half vaulted over the barrier around the track doing his best ninja hero impersonation at the same time, the rest of Torchwood wasn't too far behind him. Jack knew he would have to ask them where they had been, but he was grateful that they had arrived. Owen and Tosh were struggling with the containment field. Jack didn't see Gwen but then he only had a couple of seconds to look before the Kalarian attacked him. Jack's body twitched and burned as the shock coursed through him. After taking the woman out it seemed that the alien was running a bit low on charge. Jack staggered but didn't fall. Electricity could take him down, Lisa had proved that, but this shock wasn't strong enough to do that. It hurt, but pain and Jack were old friends, it wouldn't stop him. It couldn't stop him.

Jack walked slowly and steadily towards the Kalarian, he saw a flicker go through the being's eyes. It might have been a sign of charge building; then again, it might have been panic. Jack smiled. The flicker ran through the being's eyes once more.

"Duck," Owen yelled. Jack hit the ground as the containment beam fired through where his chest had been. He rolled sideways and then stood up and stared at the captured being. Jack dusted off his coat and then turned to look at Tosh and Owen.

"Where were you?" Owen gave a shrug.

"Got a bit lost. How are we gonna get that back to the Hub?" Owen walked a bit closer and stared at the alien. "This one's worse that the last three. It looks like it's escaped from Zombie Killers III." Jack shrugged, Owen's taste in films, while concerning, was nothing he could do anything about right now.

"Can you do anything for her?" Jack pointed at the unconscious woman who had seemingly escaped the doctor's notice. "She took a full power shock." Owen nodded quickly and started checking her over muttering under his breath all the while. His demeanour swapped from cocky know-it-all to concerned medic in an eyeblink.

"That's the only one," Gwen reported, she had just returned from a sweep of the area. Her report was a relief. Kalarians were awkward individually, in pairs they were rather more so.

"She's out cold, GCS of 7, she'll be all right." He glanced appraisingly at the woman. Her cropped blonde hair was coated in dust and a series of scars marked her hands, arms and face but she was in Owen's not inconsiderable opinion rather tasty and probably a right tiger as well. "Do you want her checked in to the hospital?" Jack shook his head.

"She's the only one who saw anything. After that chaos last week I want to make sure this is kept quiet. We can't have her gabbling about zombies in Cardiff; at least, not now the Goth scene's died down." He pulled out his mobile and pressed the sped dial. "Ianto, it was a full grown Kalarian… Yes, just the one. Two casualties and one unconscious but needing retcon. I need the containment trailer." He rattled off the address and then closed the phone down.

It suddenly occurred to Jack that he had seen another civilian here. He looked around but the young man had fled.

Ianto arrived promptly with one of the SUVs with the containment trailer bouncing along behind. He drove into the warehouse, the vehicle's headlights cutting through the shadows, and parked a couple of metres from where Owen was tending to the unconscious woman. Ianto wasn't one of the team's speed demons unless it was necessary and he was always good at judging that. With some difficulty they got the Kalarian and the containment unit into the trailer. Ianto and Owen also packed up the body of the motorcyclist, who'd been killed in initial attack and the body of the man who'd been laying near the unconscious woman. Gwen, joined them as they took Jane Doe back to the Hub with them. Tosh and Jack walked back to where they had left their car.

"So," Jack said as he wove his way back into the centre of Cardiff at slightly more than the legal limit. "Who's our unknown heroine?" Tosh, sitting next to him, tapped the keyboard of her laptop as they sped through the streets.

"I took a fingerprint scan," Toshiko said, feeding the information to the relevant databases. "Quite the youthful offender," she added as the information started to scroll up the screen. "Crystal Rodgers, age 29, apparently born in Manchester. She has active warrants for carrying an offensive weapon and GBH. Previous arrests across five counties for ABH, GBH and wounding; never been convicted. Most of the cases against her collapsed after witnesses vanished." That had been pretty much what Jack had been expecting, the people who had been at the warehouse were not the type you would invite to tea with the vicar.

They arrived back at the Hub. As the door rolled open they were greeted by the sound of gunfire and screaming. This was not a good sign. Jack and Tosh drew their guns unsure of what had happened.


	3. Chapter 3

Jack looked through the door at the Hub, the scream had stopped. This was not a good sign. The only other person he could see was Tosh who was standing somewhat nervously at his side. This was also not a good sign. The heavy door rolled open, and he entered gun in hand, the first thing he saw was a shattered containment unit. He walked onward; Owen was lying sprawled awkwardly next to the unit. Jack pressed his fingers to the medic's throat and was relieved to feel a pulse. He looked round the Hub once again there was no sign of the now missing Kalarian. Tosh knelt beside him.

"Gwen's over by the obelisk, she's unconscious as well." Jack sighed in response.

"That leaves Ianto, Crystal and an absent alien. We've got work to do." He looked around again; he had noted that there were lights on in the medical bay. He walked slowly forward; despite the lights, there did not seem to be anyone in the medical bay. He stepped through the door and felt the prickle of steel at his neck.

"Drop the gun." The voice was brisk and female. Jack span the gun in his hand so it couldn't easily be fired. "I said 'drop it'." The voice was insistent, the knife was even more so. He knew there was at least one way out of this, but he was trying to think of a way that didn't involve him getting his throat cut. He liked this shirt. He dropped the gun. "Now kick it away and turn round slowly. Keep your hands where I can see them." Jack did as instructed. He could see a flicker in Crystal's eyes that did not seem to belong. He had to get through to her.

*************************

Crys opened her eyes. Her head hurt and it felt as if someone had punched her in the chest a couple of times. That had happened, once or twice, and it wasn't an experience she was keen to repeat. The room she was in was empty and grey; it seemed to be some sort of medical area, but no one was around.

Crys got gingerly to her feet; everything seemed to be in working order. She checked her weapons, her gun was gone and her emergency blade but her favourite knife was still in it's sheath at her side. She drew the blade feeling comforted by the weight in her hand.

A slight noise outside the room caught her attention; she whirled and stared out the door. She saw two people in the area outside. One was the dark haired man from the racetrack, the other an oriental woman. The man turned towards Crys and she ducked, hoping he hadn't seen her. He was the key to all this, he knew what was going on; Crys was sure of that.

She glanced upwards and saw that he was coming towards her. She pressed her back to the wall and waited in silence, her knife held ready. As he stepped through the door she slipped behind him and placed the knife to the back of his neck, stand to one side to avoid being kicked.

"Drop the gun," she said.

*************************

Jack wondered how long this stand off could last before someone got seriously hurt. He knew he had rather walked into this situation but now he had to deal with it. He crossed his eyes for a moment to look at the blade at this throat and then smiled.

"Hello, I'm Captain Jack Harkness. Pleased to meet you." Crys was puzzled by this response but said nothing. "Anyway," Jack continued brightly "There's an escaped alien on the loose and I'm rather afraid it's going to kill someone if we don't contain it quickly." He knew he sounded rather like an old friend, who would have been surprised to see him trying a non-violent approach. He sighed "Would you mind letting me go? I've got a lot of work to do."

"Did you just say alien?" Crys asked. He hopes of getting some sort of answer were fading as it was obvious he was completely nuts. She pressed the knife a little harder into Jack's throat, a trickle of blood started to flow. Jack ignored the cut; that was easy; the trick was getting the blood out of his shirt collars afterwards. He was about to reply when a deep inhuman growl rang out. He had a moment to brace himself and then he felt claws in his back and a weight driving him down.

Crys stepped backwards as a white skinned being with slit eyes bore Jack to the floor. It wasn't human; she realised that in a moment of shock. She could feel the air crackling with electricity, the hair on her arms was standing on end. She thought about running, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to watch someone else be killed like this.

She lashed out with her knife, working on instinct. Her hand stung as the blade bit into the thing's side. Crys was flung backwards by what felt like a kick in the chest; but nothing actually touched her.

The Kalarian got off Jack and stalked towards the semi-conscious Crys. She struggled to get to her feet but stumbled amongst the debris her flying body had knocked from the shelves. The thing had got between her and the door. This wasn't good.

Jack's gun cracked. The Kalarian staggered. Jack kept firing. It went down; he stepped over the body, smiled and offered a hand to Crystal. She took his hand and got, slightly shakily, to her feet.

"What on earth was that?" She asked.

"A Kalarian" Jack said flatly, he continued "and as I said, it isn't anything on earth." Crys gaped at him for a second; her shock addled brain hadn't finished dealing with this idea yet. The body on the floor groaned. "Come on," Jack said catching her hand again. "We have to move, it won't stay out forever." Crys following him numbly, she stared around the expanse of the Hub.

"What is this place?" She asked. A faint hint of awe in her voice. She was impressed despite herself.

"Torchwood 3" Jack answered.

"And you guys hunt aliens?"

"Amongst other things," Jack said with an all encompassing shrug. Crys slowly turned a full circle.

"You've got some really cool stuff here but," she paused considering "you guys are really disorganised." She smiled and looked at the knife in her hand. "Want me to help?"


	4. Chapter 4

Ianto woke up, his head hurt. His first thought was that he must have been out drinking, but then he hadn't had a headache this bad since that night out after Lisa… He shook his head and then very abruptly decided that that was a bad idea. His memory gradually caught up with the pounding pain in his temples; actually, he reasoned, it would have made much more sense for this to be his first thought on waking as recently he had been knocked-out far more frequently than he had passed out drunk.

The Kalarian had broken out of the containment field and had caught Owen in its first blast. Then Gwen had tried to hold it off by shooting at it, she had been taken down next. He had tried to get away, it was his responsibility to make sure that it didn't escape. He had managed to bring down some of the lock-down walls. He, Toshiko and Jack had spent the best part of four days installing them, trying to make sure that anything loose in the tunnels did not end up loose in the Hub and vice-versa. It was just after that that the Kalarian had caught up with him. Now, of course, he had woken up here, wherever here was. Another, more gentle head movement revealed featureless curving brick walls to go with the featureless curving brick ceiling he had been staring at.

Ianto got gingerly to his feet, everything seemed to be working more or less correctly; although his right ankle felt a bit sore. He leaned on the tunnel wall for a moment, resting his cheek against the cool brickwork. The throb in his head reduced a bit allowing him to think a bit easier. He was trying to ascertain which direction was back to the Hub. Obviously he had been dragged or carried here; the major problem with these tunnels was that they all looked pretty much the same.

Most of Torchwood and Crys had moved into the conference room for a bit of extra security while they tried to plan their next move. The resulting 'chat' had been a lot of talk and not much action; except for the moment when Gwen had threatened to have Crys arrested and she had gone for her knife in response. Jack and Owen had ended up forcibly separating the two women: an action not without some danger.

Jack could understand where Gwen was coming from, the ex-policewoman would obviously have a problem with someone like Crys. Still, with Ianto missing and a Kalarian on the loose personnel conflicts were the last of the worries. One of the foremost of their worries was that the containment unit (originally salvaged from rift debris) was currently in a lot of pieces across the Hub floor. Toshiko didn't think she could repair it, Jack knew that he could, but the parts he would need to do the repair wouldn't be invented for another 800 or so years.

It was at that point that Crys had announced, to very dark glares from Gwen, that she knew the best person to fix anything. After another near fight; this one ending with Gwen pinned into one chair by Owen and Jack holding Crys on the opposite side of the room; Crys had told everyone about Hammy. Owen had been dubious about bringing in another 'outsider'. Toshiko had forestalled further arguments by pulling up data on the 19 year old concerned. There wasn't a lot of it; the file was mainly made up of a list of known associates/employers, a list of names that made Gwen visibly wince as she read them. Crys filled in a few more details. Jack made a decision before tempers flared anymore. As a result Crys had phoned Hammy and now she and Owen were up in the square waiting for him. Jack, Gwen and Toshiko were walking round the Hub trying to determine how much damage Crys and the Kalarian between them had done and where all the bits of the containment unit had ended up. Aside from a few shelves and the containment unit itself it didn't seem as if much had been broken.

"Is everyone all right?" Ianto said. Jack whirled round. He was surprised by how silently Ianto moved.

"Everyone's fine," Jack said. There was a bruise across the Welshman's right temple and he was limping slightly but otherwise he seemed to be in good health. Jack pulled him into a brief hug. Ianto made a sort of 'whoof' noise as the air was squashed from his lungs. Jack let go of Ianto and looked at him. "Are you all right, what happened?" Jack asked.

By the time he had finished filling them in on the trek he had taken through the tunnels Crys and Owen had returned leading a babbling teen between them. Hammy was looking around in awe, it seemed that he thought he was in heaven. Hammy looked around the Hub and then glanced back at Crys.

"This place is pretty sweet. You said you had something that needed fixing?" Crys pointed at what was left of the containment unit. Hammy rubbed his hands together, and pulled a screwdriver from his pocket. He picked up a tool lying on a desk with his free hand as he approached the containment unit. "So, how are you today?"

Gwen was about to respond to Hammy's question when she realised that he wasn't talking to her; he was talking to the rather crispy remains of the containment unit. She raised an eyebrow at Tosh and Crys.

"Is he really that good?" She asked, they looked at each other for a moment. Then Tosh spoke up.

"He does seem to know what he's doing." she offered. Crys smiled darkly.

"It's the only thing that's kept him alive this long." Gwen had no illusions about the difficulty of living the life Hammy must have led. He was short for his age and on the skinny side and his face was somewhat misshapen, he smiled broadly as he worked picking up small pieces of debris and turning them carefully in his hands. Gwen watched in silence as he continued to work, she could hear Owen complaining as he checked over the med bay, Toshiko aided the young man occasionally. Jack came over and tapped Gwen on the shoulder.

"It looks like he'll get it fixed, we still need to locate a Kalarian to put in it." Jack looked more bored than anything as he contemplated this. "preferably before it does anymore damage."

Gwen sighed and checked her gun over, it wasn't the most effective weapon against Kalarians but that was what the containment unit was for. Besides, it did have some effect.

"I don't know who has it, but I want my gun back." Crys held out her hand as she spoke, waiting.

Ianto reached into a pocket a pulled out Crys's pistol. He reached into another pocket and produced the magazine. He handed them both over to Crys without comment. Crys put the gun back together and checked it over.

"Right, let's go hunting."


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: My apologies for the delay in updating this story. RL has bitten me hard on the behind of late. There is one more chapter to come and I have started writing it. I make no promises about when I will post it save that I WILL post it. I am also promising that I will not start posting any story I have not finished writing. Also note that earlier chapters have been edited and updated with many thanks to my reviewers: bbmcowgirl and IndeMaat. Reviews and encouragement are much appreciated.

They moved methodically through the tunnels under Cardiff. Jack was half a pace in the lead with Crys keeping step beside him. Owen and Gwen were the other party. They were circling round from opposite sides, Tosh had got the trackers going again and they were now trying to herd the Kalarian back to the Hub. Hammy and Tosh had nearly finished repairing the containment unit and Ianto was keeping an eye on them and the weight off his ankle.

The only problem with this plan, Crys mused as she followed Jack, was that they were using themselves as bait; which was definitely not her preferred method of operation.

There was a scuffling up ahead. Jack broke into a wide-eyed grin. Crys looked sidelong at him, she didn't really understand this guy; he was nuts, she was sure of that, but it was a fun sort of nuts. She wondered once again exactly what she had gotten herself into. Jack had given her a brief run down on this alien. It was all but immune to bullets and could shoot electricity from it hands. It was also an alien, that was the bit she was having trouble getting her head around; however, all the other explanations she had thought of made even less sense.

The Kalarian appeared, it gave a scream that sounded something like a dying animal. It made Crys's jaw ache. The Kalarian was at the end of a sub-corridor, maybe 5 meters away. Crys stared at it, taking in the solid green slightly catlike eyes, the greyish skin and the slit mouth. Her world view shifted, now she believed. It was nothing on Earth. She was still absorbing this was Jack grabbed her hand and turned to run. Now it was just a matter of hoping it took the bait.

Crys ran down the corridor as fast as she was able. She realised that Jack still had her hand, she yanked it back. He spared her a smile, or was it a smirk. They continued to run. She could hear the eerie noise that passed for the alien's breathing as it followed them. Suddenly the noise quietened; Jack stopped, turning back. Crys continued a few metres further along the corridor before stopping herself. It seemed that the Kalarian had given up chasing them. Time to convince it that they were worth bothering with after all.

Crys heard the crack of a gun firing as she drew her gun, she sighted on the alien; it was time to how the bullets Jack had given her worked against it. The bullets had been cast with copper threads running through them. Apparently, they would cause the Kalarian's nervous / charge build up system to short.  
She fired and was pleased to see the alien stagger as her shot impacted with its mid-section. It staggered again as Jack's next bullet hit it. As she pulled the trigger a second time Crys idly wondered if he had waited for her to take a shot before firing a second time himself. Half dozen copper threaded bullets were enough to temporarily down a Kalarian, three or four were enough to seriously upset one.

It howled once more. This time it tried a blast of electricity, Jack stumbled back a couple of steps to lean against the tunnel wall, he seemed a little dazed but otherwise unharmed. He flasher her another grin, shoved himself away from the wall and started to run again. Crys joined him. The Kalarian was chasing them once again, this was a good thing, unless it actually caught one of them; in which case it was a rather bad thing.

It wasn't that far to the Hub, at least when they had walked out it hadn't seemed that far, the run back was taking a long time. Crys hoped they hadn't got lost. She was gasping for breath, she wasn't exactly unfit but; preferring short hard action; she didn't have the greatest endurance. Jack caught her up as they rounded the last corner to the Hub. Their eyes met, if Crys had had the breath she would have growled at him. She settled instead for a glare.

She glimpsed Ianto in the entrance to the Hub, he waved at them and gave a thumbs-up. Crys pushed herself to keep running, she could almost believe that she could feel the Kalarian's breath on her neck. She made it into the Hub; which seemed terribly bright after the tunnels. Her vision was starting to darken around the edges and her lungs hurt. She could see Jack gesturing at her, but it wasn't until he threw himself at her knocking them both to the floor, that she registered that he was indicating she should get down.

Crys heard a high pitched whine that sounded as if it were a cheap sci-fi special effect. When Jack let her look up she saw the paralysed Kalarian trapped by the containment beam.

She shoved Jack off her, none too gently. She was far too over heated and out of breath to be comfortable with someone pinning her to the floor. Jack got to his feet and offered her a hand up. She debated with herself for a long moment before taking his hand and allowing him to help her to her feet. To her annoyance she noticed that he wasn't breathing hard; at least, nowhere near as hard as she was. Once on her feet she found that he was invading her personal space, or maybe the other way around. It was then that Owen and Gwen arrived back, she felt their eyes on her as she yanked her hand away from Jack and took a couple of steps away from him. She saw, or thought she saw, a flicker of something that might have been resentment go through Gwen's gaze. Then again, it was hardly relevant since Gwen didn't like her anyway.

Hammy came over, he had been keeping his head down behind one of the desks but now he was bouncing with excitement.

"It worked! I did it!" Crys broke into a smile, there was something so honest and child-like about his expression that she couldn't help it. The grin and a ripple of relief went around the members of Torchwood. Jack stalked around the containment unit, staring at the captured alien.

"So, who wants to deal with this one?"


	6. Chapter 6

They moved methodically through the tunnels under Cardiff. Jack was half a pace in the lead with Crys keeping step beside him. Owen and Gwen were the other party. They were circling round from opposite sides, Tosh had got the trackers going again and they were now trying to herd the Kalarian back to the Hub. Hammy and Tosh had nearly finished repairing the containment unit and Ianto was keeping an eye on them and the weight off his ankle.

The only problem with this plan, Crys mused as she followed Jack, was that they were using themselves as bait; which was definitely not her preferred method of operation.

There was a scuffling up ahead. Jack broke into a wide-eyed grin. Crys looked sidelong at him, she didn't really understand this guy; he was nuts, she was sure of that, but it was a fun sort of nuts. She wondered once again exactly what she had gotten herself into. Jack had given her a brief run down on this alien. It was all but immune to bullets and could shoot electricity from it hands. It was also an alien, that was the bit she was having trouble getting her head around; however, all the other explanations she had thought of made even less sense.

The Kalarian appeared, it gave a scream that sounded something like a dying animal. It made Crys's jaw ache. The Kalarian was at the end of a sub-corridor, maybe 5 meters away. Crys stared at it, taking in the solid green slightly catlike eyes, the greyish skin and the slit mouth. Her world view shifted, now she believed. It was nothing on Earth. She was still absorbing this was Jack grabbed her hand and turned to run. Now it was just a matter of hoping it took the bait.

Crys ran down the corridor as fast as she was able. She realised that Jack still had her hand, she yanked it back. He spared her a smile, or was it a smirk. They continued to run. She could hear the eerie noise that passed for the alien's breathing as it followed them. Suddenly the noise quietened; Jack stopped, turning back. Crys continued a few metres further along the corridor before stopping herself. It seemed that the Kalarian had given up chasing them. Time to convince it that they were worth bothering with after all.

Crys heard the crack of a gun firing as she drew her gun, she sighted on the alien; it was time to how the bullets Jack had given her worked against it. The bullets had been cast with copper threads running through them. Apparently, they would cause the Kalarian's nervous / charge build up system to short.  
She fired and was pleased to see the alien stagger as her shot impacted with its mid-section. It staggered again as Jack's next bullet hit it. As she pulled the trigger a second time Crys idly wondered if he had waited for her to take a shot before firing a second time himself. Half dozen copper threaded bullets were enough to temporarily down a Kalarian, three or four were enough to seriously upset one.

It howled once more. This time it tried a blast of electricity, Jack stumbled back a couple of steps to lean against the tunnel wall, he seemed a little dazed but otherwise unharmed. He flasher her another grin, shoved himself away from the wall and started to run again. Crys joined him. The Kalarian was chasing them once again, this was a good thing, unless it actually caught one of them; in which case it was a rather bad thing.

It wasn't that far to the Hub, at least when they had walked out it hadn't seemed that far, the run back was taking a long time. Crys hoped they hadn't got lost. She was gasping for breath, she wasn't exactly unfit but; preferring short hard action; she didn't have the greatest endurance. Jack caught her up as they rounded the last corner to the Hub. Their eyes met, if Crys had had the breath she would have growled at him. She settled instead for a glare.

She glimpsed Ianto in the entrance to the Hub, he waved at them and gave a thumbs-up. Crys pushed herself to keep running, she could almost believe that she could feel the Kalarian's breath on her neck. She made it into the Hub; which seemed terribly bright after the tunnels. Her vision was starting to darken around the edges and her lungs hurt. She could see Jack gesturing at her, but it wasn't until he threw himself at her knocking them both to the floor, that she registered that he was indicating she should get down.

Crys heard a high pitched whine that sounded as if it were a cheap sci-fi special effect. When Jack let her look up she saw the paralysed Kalarian trapped by the containment beam.

She shoved Jack off her, none too gently. She was far too over heated and out of breath to be comfortable with someone pinning her to the floor. Jack got to his feet and offered her a hand up. She debated with herself for a long moment before taking his hand and allowing him to help her to her feet. To her annoyance she noticed that he wasn't breathing hard; at least, nowhere near as hard as she was. Once on her feet she found that he was invading her personal space, or maybe the other way around. It was then that Owen and Gwen arrived back, she felt their eyes on her as she yanked her hand away from Jack and took a couple of steps away from him. She saw, or thought she saw, a flicker of something that might have been resentment go through Gwen's gaze. Then again, it was hardly relevant since Gwen didn't like her anyway.

Hammy came over, he had been keeping his head down behind one of the desks but now he was bouncing with excitement.

"It worked! I did it!" Crys broke into a smile, there was something so honest and child-like about his expression that she couldn't help it. The grin and a ripple of relief went around the members of Torchwood. Jack stalked around the containment unit, staring at the captured alien.

"So, who wants to deal with this one?" he asked

"Me, me, me!" Owen said, acting like a four year old who had had too many colourants. Crys looked from Jack to Owen and than back to Jack.

"What do you mean 'deal with'?" she was pretty sure she could guess what he meant although to be fair most of her employers generally did not bother with euphemisms. She was mostly interested in seeing how they were going to kill it.

"If we give the Kalarian a large enough jolt it'll hit a high enough charge to be able to reach its pure energy state; then it'll be able to leave Earth." Ianto said. He was unrolling a heavy cable, when he finished he passed the end to Owen. Crys's gaze flicked from Owen to Jack and then to captive alien. To her surprise, despite the damage it had caused, it seemed that they weren't going to kill it. She leaned against a desk, knocking a couple of oddments to the floor as she did so.

"Owen walked forward holding the cable in one hand, he signalled to Ianto who flipped a large switch. The lights in the Hub dimmed. Crys had a sudden inkling of why there had been so many power cuts in Cardiff in the last few weeks. Owen shoved the cable with it's now sparking end into the containment field.

Crys wasn't sure if the Kalarian knew what was happening, the power cable connected with the alien's side. There was another horrible scream. Toash and Hammy clamped their hands to their ears. The Hub lights dimmed further, for a second there was blackness. When the lights came back up there was no Kalaraian in the cage. Owen sighed slumping at least two inches as he did so. He dropped the power cable which fell to the floor and lay there sparking for half a second before Ianto flipped the switch again. The tense air lifted slightly. Jack pushed off from the wall where he had been leaning. He rubbed his hands together.

"Toch, you and Hammy get the containment unit powered down. Hopefully we won't need it again in a hurry. Owen, you and Crys finish getting the med bay sorted out. Gwen you and I can go and reset the containment doors. Ianto…"  
"I'll put the coffee on." The quiet Welshman surprised Crys by cutting off his boss. She wasn't quite sure what she had been expecting; but, apparently, this wasn't it. "How do you take your coffee?" The question was directed at Hammy and Crys, obviously he knew what the others wanted. They gave orders; four sugars and milk no sugar respectively; and then went about their assigned tasks.

As a general rule Crys took orders from one person at a time. Her boss changed by the job and was sometimes the same person as her guardee. Whatever the job Crys had one boss and she followed orders diligently. She was always on the outside of the team so she had had ample opportunity to study them. She had yet to see a team as dysfunctional as this lot. Jack was clearly supposed to be in charge. He'd make a pretty could boss, probably a fairly annoying guardee though. However, Gwen seemed to think that she was in charge; a clear recipe for disaster in Crys's book. The possessive looks she kept firing at Jack complicated the situation; especially as he was casting glances at Ianto and Owen was casting glances at Gwen. Tosh did not seem to be involved in this mess. Crys gave up trying to figure out the dynamics as she followed Owen to the med bay; it was clear that things were messed up and she didn't want to give herself a headache.

Crys was a little unnerved to find how easily she'd adopted a new boss particularly given what had seemingly happened to her last boss; she'd have to check on that. It wouldn't do to take on another job before her current one was discharged; especially as the new job wasn't paying anything at the moment.

She picked up another box and started gathering up the scattered contents. As she stretched to put the box back on the top shelf Crys noted Owen's gaze track up her body. She raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"You doing anything later," he asked. Crys shrugged.

"I've no plans. Any idea when we'll get out of here?" Her code strictly prohibited her sleeping with her boss or her guardee; especially if they were the same person. Anyone else was fair game with the amendment that there should be no romantic entanglements that would get in the way at work. Owen did not seem the type to get romantically entangled easily so… He shrugged eloquently.

"Owen!" Jack's yell cut across the Hub. Owen didn't try to answer Crys's question; and instead headed off to see what Jack wanted. The head of Torchwood 3 looked up as his medic approached. He dropped his voice. "So, Retcon? Or do we keep them?" Jack sounded relaxed, almost too relaxed for the situation. Owen was surprised by this but decided not to comment.

"Since when do you conduct a vote on these things?" He gave another shrug. "Since you are conducting a vote, I say 'keep 'em'."

Jack let Owen go and left to count the votes and make his decision. As he walked away Owen tried to work out how the other members of Torchwood would vote. Gwen would vote for Retcon; that was easy. Tosh would probably vote to keep Hammy but he had no idea what she thought about Crys. He'd voted to keep them but what would Jack and Ianto say? Owen had butted heads with Ianto more than once and knew despite his generally quiet nature Ianto held very strong opinions. He didn't trust his ability to guess what the other man would think. As for Jack; well, Owen had absolutely no idea.


	7. Epilogue

Owen thumped the alarm clock. Work started in an hour, Crys was currently occupying the shower so there was no reason to get out of bed. He checked his phone, still no word. He had the Retcon in his pocket, just in case. He'd hate to do it; he'd had a good night, but…

The shower cut out and the Crys walked out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel that left very little to the imagination. Not that he need much imagination now. She smirked at him and winked as she wandered round the room collecting scattered items of clothing. Their weapons were in a neat pile where they could easily be grabbed but clothes had gone every which way.

Crys was pulling her shirt out from behind a chest of drawers wher her mobile rang. It took her a moment to locate the phone; given that it was currently under Owen's bed. Picking up the phone she didn't recognise the number but she answered anyway.

"Crys," The voice was American and annoying perky for this hour of the morning.

"Jack." Her voice was flat, this was her method of coping with the early hour on not enough sleep. She had long since grown used to rising whenever her employer demanded.

"I've called to make you a job offer. Are you interested?" He paused for a second then added. "Mark Hallem is deceased." Crys didn't quite know what to say, he obviously knew who and what she was but…

"Really?" She had to be dreaming.

"Yes, we could use you here. Hammy has all ready agreed." Crys managed some coherent thought. Jack may know what he was getting himself into by hiring her but she wasn't entirely sure that she did.

"Okay then."

"Great. Have Owen bring you in them. I'll see you in 48 minutes." The call cut off Crys looked at the now blank screen and then looked over at Owen who was still mostly in bed with delightfully disarranged hair.

"It looks like we're going to be colleges." Owen smirked but whatever he going to sat was cut off by his phone beeping. He quickly flipped to the message display.

Crys joining Torchwood. See you in 46 minutes. J Owen cursed, once again time had gotten away from him and he was on the verge of being late.

"I'm gonna hit the shower. We'll grab coffee on the way in. Bread and toaster are on the side in the kitchen." Crys nodded. That Retcon could stay in his pocket and she never need know he had it.

Despite the stop for coffee they made it to work with 2.5 minutes to do to Jack's apparent amusement and Gwen's seeming annoyance.


End file.
